Tis the season - at Opa-Locka (OPF)...

I'd promised previously to post some of the season goings on at Opa-Locka. There hasn't been the level of activity that there has been at Ft Lauderdale, but there were certainly some nice sights to see at Opa-Locka over the season. This was all shot in about a 15 minute period - not a lot of time, but Opa-Locka is like that - it's an easy compact airport to shoot at, but the shots can be very rewarding.

The first shot is something that I had been hearing about from various sources and some pictures of it that were already posted. The Mexican Air Force had brought their Boeing 737-200 into OPF for some refurbishment and work. I had been wanting to go down to OPF to try and shoot is and as time rolled by, I was wondering if, by the time I got to OPF, it might had departed already. However, the day I was there, it was standing right next to the fence with the APU running and some technicians going back and forth between the aircraft and the hangar. I managed to get my shot in perfect light and came away very happy.

Sitting right across the apron from the Mexican Air Force B732 was this Global Air Boeing 737-200 with it's engines removed. This Mexican registered B732 is very plain in it's color scheme with just the 3 stripes of color. This B732 started it's life at Southwest Airlines and has gone to Japan, Kazakhstan, and many other destinations before arriving back at Global in November 2009. I'm guessing that soon enough, it will have it's engines restored and will be back in the air, but I might be wrong on that.

Talking of Boeing 737's, another model that has been making final visits to OPF have been the Boeing 737-300's of Brazilian airlines GOL and Varig. There are probably a total of 6 or 7 from the 2 airlines at OPF - sent here to end their life and be broken up for parts. This particular aircraft, PR-GLH I had seen at the customs building at Ft Lauderdale when it arrived in the country from Brazil. It then flew from Ft Lauderdale to OPF to probably end it's flying life.



Finally, I'd noted the first Siberian S7 A310 that had arrived at OPF in my last posting about OPF. Since then, that first A310 VP-BSZ has been moved out to one of the remote parking areas and it is currently having it's wings disassembled. This is the second S7 A310 that arrived at OPF not long after it's sister ship. VP-BTJ is now sitting out on the apron, it's titles covered and most likely to suffer the same fate as her sister ship.

The weather starting 2010 in South Florida has been unseasonably cold and the winds have been consistently out of the west. I'm hoping that soon enough, we'll be back in the glorious light sunny days so that a lot more time can be spent behind the camera lens. I'm also trying to work on some options to have a few special features on the blog over the next year or so, so please keep checking back..